Ouch, or watch the road

Beautiful weather (60s and mixed sun with puffy white clouds) yesterday so I went for a longish ride. About 17 miles into it (at about the midpoint), I was spending too much time looking at the sights and riding too close to the edge of the road. My front wheel went onto the gravel and instead of gently braking like I should have, I tried to turn back onto the road. Of course, I fell and not quite as nicely as I normally do. Actually I may have inadvertently tucked my face into the road. I got some road rash on my face, arm, hip, and knee, and a small gash on my chin. Despite the amount of blood that seemed to be coming from my face, I hoped that it was just one of those lip wounds or near lip wounds that bleeds a lot but is really nothing. So I rode the 19 miles home, cleaned my wounds, took a shower, had dinner, and a nap. When the chin was still oozing after the nap, I was concerned that it could be a problem since I need to move my jaw for eating and brushing my teeth if nothing else. So Mormor and I started making phone calls to see where I should go on a Sunday evening. I got an appointment for one hour later at a local clinic in Falköping. No relatives were available to bum a ride from so I took a cab. They put in two stitches, without anaesthesia since that would have taken two painful shots anyway. My Swedish person-number is no longer in the system (probably because I am registered as living abroad, although they don't think that is a valid reason for me not to be in the system), so they didn't know how or how much to charge me. They wrote down my contact information and said they would call me with the answer. The whole thing took less than half an hour, because this is the sticks (no one in line before me), this was a clinic rather than an emergency room, and Swedish healthcare rules. I didn't have to fill in any sort of detailed medical history or do any real paperwork except for a short description of what caused the accident (which contained all sorts of bicycling examples, so it may have been a specific form for cycling accidents!). Didn't have to show a single piece of ID or sign anything. Very odd from a US perspective.

I feel like a big bruise today. It may be time to see if I packed any ibuprofen or if the equivalent is around here somewhere. The clinic just called and I'll be charged the normal Swedish fee for my doctor's visit - about $25. I'll either bum a car ride or ride my bike there tomorrow evening to pay it off. If I was a resident of the county, transportation by taxi to and from any healthcare would only cost about $9. Instead, the cabs cost me about $50 each way. I really miss this country sometimes.